Also 8 wharfenger. [app. for earlier *wharfager (f. WHARFAGE + -ER1), like harbinger, passenger, messenger for earlier harbeger, passager, messager.] An owner or keeper of a wharf.
1552–3. Act 7 Edw. VI., c. 7 § 3. No person … shall buy any suche Wood Coles or Fuell but onelye suche as will … consume the same,… without fraude or covine, or Wharfingers or Bargemen.
1642. Two Orders of Lds. & Comm., 3 Dec., 2. No Carrier, Waggoner, Watchman, Wharfinger.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4024/4. Francis Haslewood, of London, Cornfactor, and Wharfenger.
1761. Ann. Reg., Chron., 119. Whether the wharfingers are accountable for the thefts committed on board their lighters.
1858. Redfield, Law Railways, xvi. § 7. 250, note. A delivery to the wharfinger without notice, if warranted by the usage of the place, was sufficient.
1911. Sir H. Craik, Life Clarendon, I. ii. 42. Their goods were thus delayed at the caprice of the wharfinger.
